A primary school teacher hacked his colleague’s phone and tried to send himself an intimate image of her on WhatsApp.
Brendon Fallows, 37, has now been banned from teaching after the incident at Lady Bay Primary School near Nottingham, where he worked as a teacher and maths lead for 10 years.
He gained access by guessing a female teacher’s password, based on her date of birth found on her Instagram, after removing it from her coat pocket.
She had left it there when she left the school office to teach Mr Fallows’ class at 2.15pm in October 2023.
While she was gone, Mr Fallows tried to send an intimate video to himself via the messaging platform WhatsApp.
She initially didn’t notice after returning from teaching at 3.25pm. She even spoke to Mr Fallows about the test she had done with his class, before taking her marking to her classroom.
It was only when she unlocked her phone again at 5.15pm that she realised something was wrong and started ‘freaking out’.
The woman ‘could see skin’ in a video of hers, which had failed to send to an unsaved number. She quickly deleted it so it couldn’t go through.
‘She wondered if she could have accidentally pressed something but saw the time the message tried to send’, the panel’s report said.
Looking at WhatsApp profile the video had failed to send to, the woman recognised the profile picture, although ‘quite an old’ one, as being Mr Fallows.
Admitting what he did, Mr Fallows said he ‘allowed curiosity to be overtaken by adrenaline and complete lack of judgement or awareness of impact and consequence’.
The panel heard he was ‘aware of the deep impact [his] behaviour has had and will be likely to continue to have on the victim of [his] actions, as well as the school.
‘It is clear that [he] violated the trust and privacy of the victim, which will have caused a staggering amount of upset, anger and mistrust, as well as breaking the sense of safety in the workplace.’
The only explanation provided to the panel for his behaviour ‘was that he
had some attraction’ to the woman and ‘his personal and professional
circumstances had impacted on his behaviour’.
But there was no evidence Mr Fallow acted under extreme duress. ‘In fact, the panel found Mr Fallow’s actions to be calculated and motivated’, the report said.
The panel concluded that his behaviour amounted to unacceptable professional conduct and may bring the profession into disrepute.
Based on this, the panel recommended to the Secretary of State for Education that Mr Fallows be barred from teaching, with a review period of two years.
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